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FEARS FLIES AS EAGLE SOARS TO WALKOFF WIN
NBBO’S WORST TEAM TRADES 9TH-INNING RALLIES WITH COLUMBIA TO WIN 4TH GAME OF ‘75

EMLIRA, N.Y. (June 17, 1875) - Eagle B.B.C. entered Thursday’s home game against Columbia with a record of 3-23, easily the worst start in N.B.B.O. history. However, for one day they set the futility aside and took a memorable victory:

Through eight innings the thousand people in attendance had witnessed an enjoyable game. After visiting Columbia scored six times in the 4th to take a 9-5 lead Eagle responded with two scores in the 4th, another in the 5th, and two more in the 8th while holding Columbia scoreless to take a 10-9 lead into the final inning. That was when the real excitement started.

Columbia came to bat in T9 and tied the score on a Sacrifice Fly by PH Homer Niedermayer. They then took the lead on a one-run Single by C Allen Tocher before adding three more runs on a two-run Triple by SS Nicholas Cole and a Single by 1B Jonathan Day, taking a 14-10 lead in the process.

Eagle came up bat in B9 and decided that today was not going to be a day in which they would take another tough or embarrassing loss. After a pair of Singles & a Base on Balls to start, SS Jim Fears entered the Batter’s Box after an out and cleared the bases with a Triple, bringing the score to 14-13. The next batsman, LF Frank McCarthy, then singled in Fears to make it a tie game. After a second out and a Single that moved McCarthy to 2B, PH Charles Costello took a bat and hit a Single to RF that drove in McCarthy and won the game for Eagle and their pleasantly surprised supporters.

For Jim Fears the three-run Triple wasn’t the only big hit he had during the game:

• B2: Single past 1B off G. Archer (R)
• B3: 1-run Single to CF off G. Archer (R)
• B4: 1-run Single past 2B off G. Archer
• B6: Swinging Strike Out (2 out)
• B8: 1-run Single past 2B off E. Desmond
• B9: 3-run Triple to LCF off E. Desmond (R)
• TOTAL: 5/6 (3B, 7 RB), 3 R, 6 RBI, 100 GMSC

For the 26-year-old Fears now in his seventh year with Eagle and his second as their regular SS, it was easily the best performance ever by the batsman with a career average of .274 (OPS: .597).

For Eagle, it was a glimmer of hope in a season that already feels over. The team has never been much of a threat in Upstate New York, only finishing over .500 or in the top half of the standings once (1862), but they had never experienced anything close to the 0-15 May that started the season, which was also the N.B.B.O. first winless month (excluding Aug.).

For Columbia, they had done well to turn a 4-12 start into an 11-15 record entering the game, but today’s loss could bring their confidence straight back down to where it was at the end of May.